Greenfoot 3.5.3 is now released and available for download. This fixes a couple of bugs, in particular a memory leak which could occur in scenarios with large or numerous images. During prolonged use Greenfoot could run out of memory and crash. This bug is now fixed.

Greenfoot 3.5.2 is now released and available for download. This fixes a couple of bugs, in particular a memory leak which could occur in the Java editor. During prolonged use Greenfoot could run out of memory and crash. This bug is now fixed.

We recommend everyone to upgrade. More details are in the version history.

Greenfoot 3.5.1 released
24 Sep 2018

Greenfoot 3.5.1 is now released and available for download. This fixes various small bugs, in particular one with clicking the mouse in scenarios with worlds larger than one pixel, and a few save the world issues (including it being missing from the top menu).

In this workshop, we will discuss how to teach concepts of traditional object-oriented programming with Greenfoot and Stride. We will introduce the tools of the environment itself, discuss the Stride language (which is quick and easy to learn), and present pedagogical considerations: How do you best teach with Greenfoot? How do you create motivation? What are good teaching examples?
Teachers will go through hands-on exercises of using Greenfoot and Stride, and work with a number of programming examples that can immediately be used in a classroom.

Greenfoot scenarios are now automatically converted to HTML 5 when uploaded to the greenfoot.org site - this has a number of benefits, including that you can now run Greenfoot scenarios on a smartphone!

Scenarios upload to the Greenfoot.org site are now automatically converted to run as HTML 5. This has several advantages:

faster load times

the Java plugin is no longer required to play scenarios online

scenarios will now run on many smartphones and tablets

the UserInfo (high score) functionality works again with minimal fuss

Production of a HTML 5 scenario occurs through an automated translation of the original Java scenario into Javascript. This process has some limitations, which have been previously discussed; most importantly, Swing and AWT classes cannot be used which means that scenarios using the “java.awt.Color” and “java.awt.Font” classes will not translate successfully. Greenfoot 3.1.0 introduced replacements for these in the form of “greenfoot.Color” and “greenfoot.Font”, so we recommend upgrading to Greenfoot 3.1.0 if you are still using an older version.

In the near future, we also plan to allow running HTML 5 scenarios in a “full screen” mode (which should be particularly useful for running on phones and tablets), and to allow embedding scenarios in other web pages (much as you can embed videos from Youtube, for example).

Scenarios for which translation to HTML 5 was not successful can still be played by following the link to the legacy (applet) version, which requires the Java plugin. If you have created scenarios which didn’t translate successfully to HTML 5, viewing the scenario page while logged in should show you the log generated during the translation process which may give a hint as to what caused the failure (quite often, it will be due to use of an unsupported part of the Java API).

There may be some minor teething problems, so if you notice problems with the HTML 5 version of a scenario, feel free to discuss them in the discussion forum.

Greenfoot Live - A summer break
13 Jul 2017

Greenfoot Live is taking a summer break and will be back after the Northern Hemisphere’s new academic year.

The regular Greenfoot Live sessions will stop for the summer.

Don’t forget: Recordings of the previous events are accessible at our channel.

You can also bookmark the broadcast link and set a reminder to join us for the coming sessions next term.

Greenfoot LIVE #4 coming up
16 Jun 2017

Join us for the next live session, where we will talk about what is going on at Greenfoot development level.

We don’t generally have a fixed script for the LIVE sessions, but one of the topics we will talk about this week is what is going on at the Greenfoot’s development level.

Join us live on

Monday, 19 June 2017, at 5pm UK time (GMT + 1)

to find out more. You can join the broadcast here. (You can also bookmark this link – it will stay the same for all future Greenfoot LIVE sessions.)

Recordings of these events are accessible for viewing retrospectively at our channel.

Happy Birthday Greenfoot!
31 May 2017

Greenfoot is 11 today - getting into teenage years.

It sounds like a very long time ago: Greenfoot 1.0 was released exactly 11 years ago today, on 31 May 2006.

The project has come a long way since then. Many people have worked on it, and many more teachers have helped with creating material, using it in classrooms and providing feedback. Greenfoot continues to be developed, adapted and improved - so here is to the next 11 years!

Greenfoot LIVE #3 coming up
30 May 2017

Join us for the next live session, where we will talk about exporting to JavaScript.

We don’t generally have a fixed script for the LIVE sessions, but one of the topics we will talk about this week is the replacement of applets on the Greenfoot website with JavaScript versions, and the related opportunity of running Greenfoot scenarios on mobile devices.

Join us live on

Monday, 5 June 2017, at 5pm UK time (GMT + 1)

to find out more. You can join the broadcast here. (You can also bookmark this link – it will stay the same for all future Greenfoot LIVE sessions.)

Greenfoot LIVE - 2nd meeting
11 May 2017

Monday, 22 May 2017, at 5pm UK time (GMT + 1)

Greenfoot Live

Programming Education Chat With The Greenfoot Team

Greenfoot Live started on 8 May and will be every two weeks. The second one will be on 22 May.

Greenfoot Live will be a regular chat event where members of the Greenfoot team will be live online and talk about Greenfoot, among ourselves and with you – the users of Greenfoot. The event is aimed mostly at teachers who use Greenfoot in their classes, but also at general Greenfoot users.

We will discuss educational aspects, as well as general programming topics, related to Greenfoot.

You will have a chance to listen to us talk, as well as ask questions.

Save the date

2nd Greenfoot Live event will be held on Monday, 22 May 2017, at 5pm UK time (GMT + 1)

Recordings of these events are accessible for viewing retrospectively at our channel.

To join the event, please visit this link where you can also set a reminder.

Don’t forget to mark this date in your diary and join us!

Join us for Greenfoot LIVE
08 May 2017

Join us for Greenfoot Live on 8 May 2017.

Greenfoot Live

Programming Education Chat With The Greenfoot Team

Greenfoot Live will be a regular chat event where members of the Greenfoot team will be live online and talk about Greenfoot, among ourselves and with you – the users of Greenfoot. The event is aimed mostly at teachers who use Greenfoot in their classes, but also at general Greenfoot users.

We will discuss educational aspects, as well as general programming topics, related to Greenfoot.

You will have a chance to listen to us talk, as well as ask questions.

Save the date

The first Greenfoot Live event will be held on

Monday, 8 May 2017, at 5pm UK time

That is

4pm GMT

9am in San Francisco

12noon in New York

18:00 in Germany, Scandinavia, Italy, France, …

2am in Sydney (sorry…)

After this first event on 8 May, we will host Greenfoot Live every two weeks. Recordings of these events will be accessible afterwards for viewing retrospectively.

To join the event, please visit this link where you can also set a reminder.

Don’t forget to mark this date in your diary with a big red pen and join us in a couple of weeks!

Greenfoot 3 is here
25 Oct 2015

Greenfoot 3 has been released – the biggest change in Greenfoot since its original release.

This version of Greenfoot adds the Stride language and its frame-based editor to Greenfoot.

Java editing, as we know it, is not gone: Java and its old editor are still present, and we expect that many people will still use Greenfoot with Java. Greenfoot 3 was carefully designed so that existing teaching material is still usable and existing instructions and tutorials continue to work.

There is, however, now the added ability to write classes in Stride. Stride is a Java-like language, and its attraction lies not so much in language features, but in its unique frame editor: Half way between blocks and text, it makes the entry into programming much easier than it ever was before with an essentially text based system. It also eases the transition for learners coming from block-based systems, such as Scratch, Snap or Alice.

The transition from blocks to text is a very pressing problem for many teachers at the moment, and it is frequently discussed at computing education conferences. Several research groups are working on addressing this issue.

Where most other systems, however, support the transition by providing a dual system – code can be shown as blocks or as text, with transitions between them – Stride goes a different way: Instead of having two views to compare, Stride provides a single system that offers the main benefits of both blocks and text in a single interface.

In doing this, Stride is uniquely placed to offer a new way to teach young learners who want to move on to full text-based languages.

We would also welcome testing of existing, Java-based scenarios to make sure Greenfoot 3 continues to work well with all existing code and teaching material. So run your own scenarios with Greenfoot 3, and tell us how is goes.